'No fault' approach leaves contractors blameless

There are various kinds of no-fault insurance policies, but one of the more exclusive is the one public officials use to cover their inadequacies.

My colleague Susan Spencer highlighted one such policy Sunday, in an article on the Wakefield-based TLT Construction Co., whose contract on a middle/high school project in Sutton was terminated by town officials. The town charged the company with using inappropriate personnel and materials, and in being slow to complete the project and to pay subcontractors.

But as Ms. Spencer pointed out, Sutton is just one of several disgruntled municipalities the company has left in its wake. It has a pattern of underbidding on public contracts and then failing to complete the work to the satisfaction of the cities and towns.

Yet in almost all the cases in which TLT's work was deemed unsatisfactory by a municipality, the company was able to get away without a blemish, ensuring its ability to remain a business of good standing in the eyes of the state.

Manny Gines, organizer for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, has monitored TLT and similar contractors in the states for years. He has meticulously tracked and detailed the incidence of companies misclassifying workers, paying them under the table or not paying them at all, and he has continually provided his findings to the state.

"We bring them proof these companies are operating illegally, that they are cheating the employees and the state, and for whatever reasons they do not go after these guys aggressively."

With the state either looking the other way, or merely administering "slap on the wrist" administrative action in these cases, cities and towns are generally forced to accept the low bids of these companies, Mr. Gines said.

And when things fall apart, rather than face a drawn-out and expensive lawsuit, these municipalities generally embrace settlement agreements that hold the contractor faultless.

This kind of no-fault policy is not esoteric to renegade Massachusetts contractors. It is constantly used, for example, by the city of Worcester to cover police misconduct. Since 2000, Worcester has paid out $1,751,750 to settle primarily brutality cases brought against the Worcester Police Department.

Of that amount, only $165,000 was the result of jury verdicts. The others were all resolved with settlements in which the city maintained it had done nothing wrong. Given that these brutality cases usually raised important issues about police training and operational procedures, the no-fault policy adopted by the city creates the potential for renegade police officers to continue terrorizing residents at will.

"They (the city) haven't learned any lessons," said Hector Pineiro, the civil rights lawyer who has brought dozens of police brutality cases against the city.

"They have a pre-existing attitude to not look critically at the way they do their police work."

But perhaps the best no-fault policy of all is the one cloaking our "do-nothing" congressional Republicans.

Indeed, given all the country's current domestic and foreign challenges, the major legislation being pushed by these Republicans is a lawsuit charging President Obama with overstepping his powers by using executive actions.

Yet, despite their dismal record, congressional Republicans running for office are expected to win and help maintain their majority in the House, and increase their numbers in the Senate.

If they do, it will because they have the best no-fault protection in the country — the blame Obama insurance policy.